GNITN – Special Edition

Israel At War – Day 79

No Peace On Earth Now

Meddling From The Start

Now others won’t consider this meddling, but when you dictate the way a war is fought when it’s not your country, I consider it that. We read about just such intrusion in a report from The Times Of Israel:

Israel reportedly had warplanes in the air ready to carry out a major preemptive strike against Hezbollah in Lebanon four days after Hamas’s October 7 terror onslaught, but US President Joe Biden managed to convince Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stand down at the last minute.

Recognizing that the IDF could not pull off such a major strike against Hezbollah on its own, Israel was asking the US for assistance, the Journal said, citing unnamed officials familiar with the matter.

Whether we can trust unnamed sources is a topic for another time, however it did appear that the IDF was more than ready to take preemptive strike on Hezbollah on October 11th:

The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday that Israeli officials urgently reached out to their American counterparts on October 11, relaying that they had compiled intelligence pointing to an imminent Hezbollah cross-border attack akin to the one carried out by Hamas in which some 1,200 people were massacred in Israel and roughly 240 were taken hostage.

Apparently the United States was working on advice from Iran:

The US had been receiving messages from Iran through mediators saying that Tehran was not interested in further regional escalation, US officials have told The Times of Israel, and these messages ostensibly informed Washington’s response to the Israeli warning.

And we should trust Iran? Really? However, it does make a point that Iran is the puppet master in all of this.

Internal Differences

Netanyahu was persuaded by Biden, but his military advisors wanted to act:

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was pushing hard for the preemptive strike and also had the backing of the IDF, according to the Walla news site.

Netanyahu opposed the idea but didn’t want to be a minority voice against a strike.

With a little political maneuvering, the Prime Minister got his way:

The prime minister managed to simultaneously ink an agreement with Benny Gantz for the latter’s National Unity party to enter the government.

Gantz and his National Unity colleague Gadi Eisenkot agreed with Netanyahu that a preemptive strike was a bad idea, Walla said.

With Gantz and Eisenkot — two former IDF chiefs of staff — in his camp and now part of the war cabinet, Netanyahu felt he was in a better position to stand up to Gallant.

The reporting was refuted, though hence the reason we should take anonymous sources as only one side of the story:

The Prime Minister’s Office late Saturday denied the WSJ report, asserting that Netanyahu decided after October 7 that Israel’s first priority would be to focus on the southern front and that this position was adopted by the war cabinet.

Previous reports have also said it was Gallant and IDF officials who wanted to attack Hezbollah before tackling Hamas, based off the military doctrine that prioritizes dealing with the more formidable enemy first if fighting on two fronts. Those earlier reports said Netanyahu rejected the doctrine in this case.

The Defense Ministry, CIA, and US State Department declined to comment on the report.

Who Is Really Is In Charge In Lebanon?

In a previous video I disagreed with some who felt the Psalm 83 war had already happened because the current terrorists coming against Israel are not countries and the nations listed in Psalm 83 are definitely countries. Case in point is Lebanon where Hezbollah works out of and has base camps stationed. While it may get a little in the weeds on laws and resolutions, this quote from the same war report mentioned above gives us an example of the dispute:

Lebanon’s prime minister claimed Friday his country is ready to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the Second Lebanon War in 2006 — a move that would help end Hezbollah’s cross-border attacks.

UN Security Council Resolution 1701 calls for the removal of armed personnel south of Lebanon’s Litani River, except for UN peacekeepers and the Lebanese army and state security forces. But Hezbollah has entrenched itself across much of southern Lebanon for decades, where it holds strong support and has regularly launched rockets against Israel, while Beirut does nothing to rein in the group.

Mixed signals are being sent from the fighting in the north, though:

On Saturday, senior Hezbollah official Nawaf Musawi told Lebanon’s al-Manar TV network that Hamas believes another major front on the northern border would not stop Israel’s campaign in the Gaza Strip.

“We asked our brothers in Gaza what could we do? If to initiate an all-out war in Lebanon. Would that stop the war in Gaza or not?” Musawi said. “Their response was no, it would not stop it, the war in Gaza will not end, only with Israel’s victory inside Gaza.”

Regardless of all this talk, Hezbollah is still a terrorist group that still wants Israel destroyed and as such will need to be destroyed at some point. The IDF is inclined to take them out next.

Christmas Cancelled

In a city that relies heavily on tourism at this time of the year, Bethlehem is feeling the strain from the war In Israel as we read in this report from i24news.tv:

In a departure from the usual festive cheer that graces the Holy Land during Christmas, the municipality of Bethlehem, traditionally recognized as the birthplace of Jesus Christ, has decided to cancel extravagant celebrations this year.

The move is to display solidarity with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, currently embroiled in conflict with Israel.

The usual Christmas tree was also changed:

In response to the conflict between Hamas and Israel, the city's traditional Christmas tree has given way to a symbolic nativity scene. Crafted from stones and barbed wire, this installation serves as a powerful gesture of protest against the bombings in the Palestinian enclave. The scene stands in stark contrast to the usual festive atmosphere, embodying a somber acknowledgment of the realities on the ground.

All "unnecessarily festive" elements, including decorations, parades, and religious ceremonies, have been scrapped in Bethlehem. The iconic Christmas tree that typically adorns the city center has been replaced by a symbolic nativity scene, erected in front of the UNESCO world heritage site, the Basilica of the Nativity.

Usually Bethlehem is very crowded and busy, but not this year:

Bethlehem, usually bustling with hundreds of thousands of tourists during the holiday season, is now experiencing a sharp decline in visitors due to the ongoing conflict, further exacerbated by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

The city's economy heavily relies on tourism, and the absence of pilgrims has led to the closure of numerous hotels, shops, and restaurants.

No Peace On Earth, No Goodwill Towards Men

Prime Minister Netanyahu released a Christmas video to who he called his Christian friends around the world. I couldn’t find a transcript of it, but we can listen to it as I close this video. However we do have comments from an interview from Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog found on CBN.com:

n an exclusive wide-ranging Christmas Eve interview with CBN News at the President's Residence, Israeli President Isaac Herzog discussed Israel's war of " civilizational values" with the Hamas terror group, a war he says will "define the way the family of nations operates."

“We are in a way protecting the values of a major part of the world who believes in freedom, liberties, democracy," Herzog told us, "because if we weren’t here and all Jews would be wiped off here, that’s what Hamas wants, these ISIS-type organizations, these jihadists – then Europe would be next and the United States would be next."

Herzog also mentioned religious freedom at this time in the world:

Herzog also discussed the Israelis held hostage by Hamas, the importance of the wider regional war, and the explosion of anti-Semitism worldwide.

The president noted the timing of the Christmas Eve holiday and spoke about religious freedom in Israel. He thanked Christians around the world for their support of Israel at this difficult time and talked about his long-standing relations with the Christian world.

Herzog extended holiday greetings to "all the Christian citizens of Israel," and added, "to wish all our allies and friends, supporters all over the world, and people of the world who are celebrating Christmas and the New Year, with a wish for Merry Christmas and Happy New Year."

"Let's hope," he said, "that 2024 will bring with it a different direction for the people of the Middle East – a direction of peace, a direction of no more war.”